Xash3D Engine has been tested for compatibility with many of Gold Source games and MODs. At this moment it should provide you an ability to successfully complete almost any existing singleplayer Half-Life mod without compatibility problems. Some mods can be not totally compatible, if they are too hardly modified or using some very specific or unstable features of Gold Source engine. Also multiplayer part of Xash3D engine is not fully completed yet because of lack of some important information and hidden source codes of Gold Source engine. So in most cases multiplayer mods should work good in a local or a LAN game, but some features can not work or work not exactly as under Gold Source engine. Check a detailed list of tested mods and a list of tested maps in "Features" section. A full list of Xash3D Engine features is also there, plus a guide on how to get work Half-Life and its' mods under Xash3D (in English and in Russian).

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Since Xash3D is a Half-Life compatible engine, then all the innovations below will be given in comparsion with GoldSrc engine.

Basic limits.

Xash3D limits are not just higher than Half-Life ones, they also can be tuned in gameinfo.txt file.
- MAX_EDICTS is 600 - 4096 (versus 900 in Half-Life).
- MAX_TEMPENTS is 300 - 2048 (vs. 500).
- MAX_PARTICLES is 1024 - 8192 (vs. 4096).
- MAX_BEAMS is 64 - 512 (vs. 64)
Careful limits reduction can save RAM in mods which don't need many edicts. Also MAX_EDICTS parameter is broadcasted from server during a multiplayer session, it adjusts clients to new conditions automatically.

Other limits.

These limits are engine-hardcoded and can not be tuned by user.
- MAX_VISIBLE_PACKET is 512 entities (256 in Half-Life).
- MAX_MODELS is 2048 unique models (including sprites and bmodels)
- MAX_SOUNDS is 2048
- MAX_SENTENCES is 2048 (1534 in Half-Life)
- MAX_USER_MESSAGES is 191 (128 in WON Half-Life)
- MAX_TEXTURES is 4096 (2048 of them can be used for VGUI)
- MAX_MESSAGES is 2048 (1024 in Half-Life) (quantity of messages in titles.txt)
- Maximum size for indexed textures is 4096х4096 (vs. 512х512 in Half-Life)
- Maximum size for true-color textures is 4096x4096.

Xash3D allows to get more accurate value of current lighting level, because it considers lightstyles and their current values. The player's lighting is taken directly from renderer and considers all lighting types, including entity light and dynamic light.

Improved decal save.

Half-Life supports decal save only on world surfaces and very rare on doors, elevators and other moving models. Xash3D saves decals on every brush model. Decal transition between levels is also maintained (implemented in Half-Life, but doesn't really work).

Entity patch technology support.

This technology allows to load entities from external .ent script file. This script can be produced by the external ripent.exe application or by engine's facilities by typing the entpatch command. If the command is entered when a map is loaded, a new entity patch will be created.

Various map formats support.

Xash3D supports following BSP-map formats: Quake 1, Half-Life, Half-Life Blue Shift. Besides, Quake 1 external bmodels are supported (medikit and ammo models). Note: it is recommended to play Quake 1 maps in Deathmatch Classic mod to prevent stuckness of player because of the difference between hull's sizes of Half-Life and Quake.

Hot resource precaching support.

Xash3D allows to precache models "on the fly" that helps to avoid nasty PF_PRECACHE_ERROR. Also Xash3D doesn't crash if a model or sound wasn't found.

Reliable changelevel.

Before switching to a next map Xash3D will analyze its state (without unloading the current map) and decides whether correct changelevel procedure is possible. In case of any error in a next map the engine will signal about it in the developer's console, and the changelevel will be aborted. The error message also contains troubleshoot tips that can make level designer's life easier, because such errors are most difficult to diagnose and fix.

Built-in credits.

To display credits and exit the game after, run the pfnEndSection command with oem_end_credits argument. The credits code is placed in menu.dll and can be changed by user at his discretion.

It allows to tie one entity to another, taking into account movement and rotation of the former entity. You can see an example in SDK - a crossbow bolt that correctly attaches itself to func_pushable, func_rotating, func_tracktrain and other brush models.

Console autocomplete support.

Xash3D has a powerful console autocomplete system that allows not just print command lists, but also describe all of them during the search. For more comfort you can type "makehelp" in the console, and the engine will generate help.txt that contains the list of all commands and variables with short descriptions. Map, movie, background track, cfg script, save, weapon (give command), sound (play command), game directory names input is also assisted by the autocomplete feature.

No parent directory restriction.

Most Quake engines are restricted to the parent directory with specific name, which doesn't matter when you make mod, but very uncomfortable when you make total game conversion and therefore replace the parent directory. Xash3D doesn't restricted to specific folder, and the parent directory is defined by the launcher. This way you can make your own game that doesn't depend on Half-Life.

Dedicated server has the autocomplete feature now, your command history can be saved.

Dedicated server has the autocomplete feature now, your command history can be saved.

Background maps support.

Background map is a map to be displayed as a menu background. You could see them in Half-Life 2. Xash has a simplier background map system - it doesn't depend on unlocked chapters (because original Half-Life has no chapters system) and it chooses the background map from the list. This list file must be named as chapterbackgrounds.txt and placed in scripts directory (if you don't have such directory, then just make it). Every list's entry is separated by new line. You can use any playable map as the background, but better don't use maps where player starts in a moving train, because it won't look good.

Lightstyle interpolation.

Turned off by default. Doesn't work with short sequences like switching on and off the light. It smooths light animation very well on long slow sequences like SlowStrobe or SlowPulse. Note: FPS rate may suffer from this option.

luma glowing textures support (Quake-style).

You can see such textures in original quake maps as glowing fields on a texture. Because this feature is caused by the Quake pallet's special features, the engine enables it for textures that have Quake or Quake2 pallet. This pallet is saved well after the simple conversion of wad2 files to wad3.

Improved model and sprite lighting.

Improved model lighting includes per-bone lighting from static and dynamic light sources, and it also includes correct model lighting on every stage of long sequence execution, when model goes far enough from its real location. The best example is forklift.mdl Sprite lighting is a correct lighting of all sprites that is rendered in additive mode and had "alphtest" during the compilation. For example, blood decals uses the world lighting and doesn't glow in darkness. Both sprites and models don't just use the world lighting, but also consider lighting of the closest brush model if there is one.

Player model display in the menu.

Instead of a usual player image you can see his 3D model in the menu and track all changes right on-the-spot.

Hi, all. There are some new information about the project. Currently all official (by Unkle Mike) work at development of Xash3D/XashXT has been stopped for an indeterminate time, for the reason that another work has been started. Unkle Mike decide to switch his efforts on development of the new engine, XashNT. This engine will be a further continuation of Xash3D/XashXT, with a support of most usual modmaking tools, but now it will be much more farther from GoldSrc even before. It will be totally independent engine, intended exclusively for creating of new games. It will not support any of already existing Half-Life mods. Its' code will be totally rewritten.

The code of a rendering system will be based on GLSL (OpenGL Shading Language), this will make the new engine faster. New renderer will support all popular modern graphics enhancemets, as bump, parallax, water effects, daytime changes etc. Client/server part of code will be revised for better optimization. Also, with a refusal from support of GoldSrc now it will be possible to implement a fully working multiplayer system. Other planned features are: new map format (with a support of huge spaces, env_cubemaps and other things), new game physics (probably now without using of PhysX), extending of GoldSrc model format (old models will be supported too, but new models will also have some advanced features, as ragdoll etc.). Entity system for a first time will be the same as in XashXT.

When a pilot version of XashNT will be ready, a closed beta-testing will start. Members for CBT will be chosen personally by Unkle Mike (probably most of them will be only active game/mod developers, who already have appropriate projects based on Xash3D+XashXT and ready to move on the new engine, or skilled enough to experiment with it). If you have any ideas for the new engine, you are welcome to tell about them in the following thread (the forum is on russian, but you can use english easily):Cs-mapping.com.ua

Update from December 13, 2014:

Xash3D Engine has been updated to the build 2867, which is available now in Downloads section! By the way, you can call this build "The anniversary edition", because already 10 years have been passed from the beginning of the developing of Xash3D! Also dont' forget about XashXT which is ready for your pleasure too!

Xash3D Engine v0.96, build 2867 (with extras)

XashXT v0.65 rev.1 (Xash3D mod & toolkit)

If you a new with Xash3D, please, check this manual about proper installing of the engine. XashXT should be installed in a same folder with the engine, as addon/mod for it (with its' own executable - xash.exe).

Hi, I am almost finished with the coding part of my modding base (based on XashXT) and thought it would be nice to make a enhanced Half-Life with my new effects, monsters and weapons too. On my tests I noticed a critical crash bug with XashXT (even unmodified). The HL chapter "on a rail" (starting with c2a2) crashes the game on every map. With help of the "entpatch" command and deleting entities, I managed to find the problem in the "path_track" entity. If there is a "altpath" defined, but the target does not exist in the map, the game crashes. After some trial and error, I was able to fix this bug by myself this time, even without real C++ knowledge. Maybe it is useful to Uncle Mike, although Xash ist final.
On server side open up "pathcorner.cpp" and near line 127 replace this:

Any reflections will cost you perfomance, you know. Also it's possible to use reflection only for still water (without normal waves). Easiest way to make a reflection surface is use texture called "reflect1" or "reflect". Just place it over the water apply to it some transparency. This is described in Xash3D documentation, make sure you've read it first.

Latest information about this issue - you should use only original bumprad from Paranoia SDK when you want to compile maps for Paranoia. Trying to use bumprad from XashXT tools will cause this effect of black textures, because Paranoia rendering system can't process XashXT lightmaps properly.

If you have an integrated videocard by Intel and use Paranoia's modified dlls, then you can have some glitches like this (or a red-colored lighting zone around the player). This is a hardware/driver problem and it's not solved yet.

I'm talking about xash_extras.7z\docs & XashXT_065_rev.1.7z\xash\devkit\docs. You are also welcome to ask questions at official Xash3D forum (you can use english there, same as here). What about learning videos, I don't know people who will agree to make them, unfortunately.